APACHE DROPOUT
Bubblegum Graveyard
Apache Dropout’s MO is simple: ’60s-style garage/psych with a few
post-punk/new wave influences thrown in. There’s a pleasing tongue-in-cheek weirdness about it all, in the vocal
inflections, the freakshow lyrics and the EC comics pastiche cover, with its
bubblegum-blowing, scythe-weilding, graveyard-dwelling ghoul.
'Carryin’ Fleas' is all scuzzy, psychedelic fuzz guitar and Cramps-style
monotone rumble. The playing is appropriately rudimentary throughout,
particularly in the primordial thump of the Mo Tucker-esque drumming. 'Kitty Verlaine' has a truly unhinged, double-tracked guitar solo, where
notes stretch and contort, hanging in the air like ectoplasmic trails. 'Hey
Valentine', meanwhile, is ’60s coffee house folk drenched in layers of aqueous
guitar.
They wear their influences proudly on their collective sleeve – VU,
Ramones, Cramps – though 'I-80' has the kind of yelping, raunch ’n’ roll, Jerry
Lee-style craziness which harks back to a more primitive era. This is not exactly reinventing the wheel, but it’s huge fun
nonetheless.
Neil Hussey
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